


History Assignment

by SmolShampoo



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Ancient Greek, Fluff, I like to think they both picked up random hobbies, I'm a sucker for history things, M/M, let crowley paint, the renaissance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 21:23:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20955122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolShampoo/pseuds/SmolShampoo
Summary: “Adam and his little friends are coming over. Don’t get mad, wasn’t my idea.” Crowley walked into the backroom flopping on the sofa across from where Aziraphale was reading a book.“Is that so dear? Care to tell me whose fault it is?” Aziraphale didn’t bother looking up from his book, used to Crowley’s dramatic antics by now.“Well, it’s not mine.” He dodged the question after thinking for a few seconds. “See I was just checking up on the kid making sure he wasn’t having second thoughts on the whole apocalypse thing, we don’t want that. So I was talking with them and apparently, they are struggling with some history assignment or whatever and we’ve been around for a while so I just thought...The point is it wasn’t my idea.” he finished with a huff glaring at the ceiling.“Of course not my dear.” Aziraphale set his book down and set off to prepare for the arrival of the four kids, but not before placing a kiss on the demon’s forehead. “And I wouldn’t be mad if it were your fault. It will be nice to see the young antichrist again.”





	History Assignment

“Adam and his little friends are coming over. Don’t get mad, wasn’t my idea.” Crowley walked into the backroom flopping on the sofa across from where Aziraphale was reading a book.    
  


“Is that so dear? Care to tell me whose fault it is?” Aziraphale didn’t bother looking up from his book, used to Crowley’s dramatic antics by now.    
  


“Well, it’s not mine.” He dodged the question after thinking for a few seconds. “See I was just checking up on the kid making sure he wasn’t having second thoughts on the whole apocalypse thing, we don’t want that. So I was talking with them and apparently, they are struggling with some history assignment or whatever and we’ve been around for a while so I just thought...The point is it wasn’t my idea.” he finished with a huff glaring at the ceiling.    
  


“Of course not my dear.” Aziraphale set his book down and set off to prepare for the arrival of the four kids, but not before placing a kiss on the demon’s forehead. “And I wouldn’t be mad if it were your fault. It will be nice to see the young antichrist again.”

  
  


By the time that the Them and Adam arrived, Aziraphale had snacks (ones that would miraculously not get crumbs throughout the bookshop) and hot cocoa prepared, and Crowley had decided to revert to his snake form for a nice sunbath by the window.    
  


“-six thousand years, if they can't help I’m sure no textbook or whatever can.” Adam walked in first in the middle of a conversation with the Them. “Hello, Mr. Aziraphale. Oh hello to you too Mr. Crowley.” Adam greeted both beings scooping Dog up into his arms. Aziraphale allowed Dog in the shop only as long as he wasn’t near any books, and with all the books on the ground, it seemed like the best plan was just to hold onto Dog. “It was very nice of you to offer to help us with our history essays.” 

“Of course dear! Crowley will be helping too since he did offer first.” Aziraphale smiled glancing over to where Crowley was laying.   
“I’ll be what know?” He hissed glaring at the angel from his spot on the windowsill.    
“You didn’t expect me to help all four children on my own now, did you? Come on now my dear that would be just silly. Besides, I do believe it was  _ your idea? _ ”    
“Ngk. Fine.” Crowley slithered down and transformed into a more human appearance to stand next to Aziraphale.

“Now let’s get started, shall we? I made some snacks as well please help yourself.”   
  


The assignment was split off into pairs to begin with, so it was quite easy to navigate who went with who. Wensleydale and Pepper had decided on the topic of Ancient Greece. Aziraphale had quickly offered to help them with this topic quietly mumbling to himself about what a pleasant time Greece was.    
  
“Ancient Greece is quite a broad topic. Was there anything you two specifically had in mind for this assignment?” Aziraphale wandered around the shelves as if he was searching for something.    
“Well actually you see, that’s the reason why we picked it.”   
“Yeah, the more broad it is, the more information we can get. We really just need some important events I suppose.”   
“It’s broader, dear girl.” Aziraphale caught himself correcting Pepper out of habit. “Important events you say.” He quickly stopped scanning the shelves. “Well, there were many poetic geniuses at that time. I would most definitely consider them important. We have Sappho for instance,” he quickly pulled out a scroll that was laying on top of some books. “Oh! I’m sure you have heard of Homer right?” Aziraphale glanced down at the children who were both staring up at him confusion drawn on their faces. “He wrote down a good number of their myths” He quickly added, hoping that it would help clear a few things up.

“If you and Mister Crowley are both real, and it’s proof that God and stuff exist then how did the greeks get all those silly myths about different Gods anyway.” Pepper quickly asked trying to stop Aziraphale from pulling out any more greek poets that they hadn’t heard of.”

“Oh, that is a wonderful question! You see it was actually Crowley who made a lot of those up. Some were based on silly little things he’d done but he really did make quite a few up. He has such an imagination that demon.” Aziraphale glanced across the store to where the demon was with a fond expression. “Oh, I suppose it would be more proper to refer to Crowley as she in this case. He had that whole Medusa thing going on then.”   
“Wait hold on. Crowley was Medusa?”   
“Oh yes, it was quite the story. You see I was sent by heaven to investigate…”

It was quite a large number of men that had gone missing before heaven actually decided to sen Aziraphale to investigate it. But rumors had gone around quite a long while before that. Ones of a woman that had snakes for hair and piercing snake eyes to go with it. The eyes were apparently what turned men to stone. The whole thing seemed ridiculous to Aziraphale. 

Yet here he was wandering into a forest to look for a serpent-like maiden. Of course one can't doubt that the accusations were false. The deeper you got into the forest, you really could see men frozen stiff, fear clear on their faces. 

“WHO DARES ENTER THE FOREST OF MEDUSA?”

Aziraphale jumped at the sudden voice and tried to locate the source of it. "Oh, you serpent. I should have known you were behind this. Honestly snakes for hair? It's all quite dramatic."

"Azziraphale? That you?" 

"Of course it is, Crawley. Oh, would you come out already? It's hard to talk when I can't see you." 

Crawley appeared in front of Aziraphale. He did not have actual snakes for hair. But it was long and wavy enough that if you glanced at it quickly you might think that it was snake-like in a way. She also had started to resemble a snake more than normal. There were plenty of dark scales decorating her skin, and her eyes were completely golden. "What are you doing all the way out here?" She leaned on a tree staring at the angel who stood in front of her.

"What do you think? My dear you can't go around turning people to stone! People notice that sort of thing! Especially when you freeze so many!" Aziraphale motioned towards a frozen man beside them. The man looked like he was on the verge of tears. 

"Sss'not that many really." Crawley said hissing out the s syllable. "The lot of them are all asssssholess anyway. I always let the nice one go. Gives me a good reputation that way. Or did you forget I'm a demon." She took a few steps forward so they were face to face. 

“O-of course not.” Aziraphale stumbled back a bit putting more space between the two. He hadn’t forgotten, in fact, it was more the opposite really. He was solely focused on the fact the Crawley was a demon, and that the two of them should not be as the are. “In fact, that is the reason I’m here. To thwart you.”   
“Is that so now? Well, consider me thwarted.” Crawley snapped and the many frozen men vanished from the forest. “I’m tired of being in this forest anyway. People have started avoiding it too much anyway. Care for lunch?” 

  
  


Crowley sat on the other side of the shop munching on one of the biscuits Aziraphale had intended for the children. “So. History?”   
“That’s right. We were hoping you’d help since you were there.” Adam said holding Dog in his lap.    
“We chose the renaissance. There wasn’t really any reason really. Just thought it would be cool.” Brian said in between bites of his biscuit. 

“Renaissance hm? Lots of art and stuff. Yep. Very art-y that era.” Crowley said half focusing.   
“Well yeah, we knew that already. We were hoping you would give us more specifics. On it.” 

“Mmmm can’t really help you there. Don't remember much. It was a while ago cut me some slack.” It was a clear lie but Crowley didn’t really care to share what actually came to mind.

“-and then Uriel said...You’re not even listening. Crowley!”    
Crowley glanced up at Aziraphale, eyes safely hiding behind his glasses.“ ‘M listening, Angel.” He was, just not very well. It was hard to focus on two things at once after all.    
“You’re not! You’re to focus on whatever it is you’re writing in that little book!” Aziraphale reached forward to grab it from the demon’s hands.    
Crowley snapped it shut and pulled it to his chest. “I wasn’t  _ writing _ anything.” 

“If you weren’t writing then what on earth  _ were _ you doing?”   
“I er- nothing. I wasn’t doing anything.” Crowley started at the book in his arms as if it would vanish if he didn’t keep an eye on it. 

“Crowley. Please, my dear. You’ve kept your head in that book of yours for weeks now. Just let me see.” Aziraphale stretched out his palm waiting for Crowley to hand the book over to him. 

For a few moments, he started at Aziraphale’s hand, and then at the book. Finally, he sighed setting it in the angel’s hand. “They’re not very good. I just started not that long ago. Figured it would be a fun hobby or some shit.” 

Aziraphale carefully opened the book staring at the ink on the pages. Inside the book were light sketches Crowley had drawn. They varied from random strangers, animals, objects and most commonly Aziraphale. “Oh, my dear. These are just lovely.” Aziraphale looked up handing the book back to the demon. 

“Ngk. They’re just sketches really. Having gotten around to trying to painting much.” Suddenly it was much easier to look at anything other than Aziraphale’s beaming face. 

“Oh! I could model for you if you want dear. I have some spare time and I certainly wouldn’t mind.” 

Crowley found it impossible to use words to reply to that so he just simply nodded staring at the angel dumbstruck. 

The two of them quickly settled back into the small apartment he had been staying at for the time being. It was a bit disorganized from various papers that Crowley had left scattered about from the last time he was here. 

“Ignore the papers. Hell wants written reports now. Apparently me just popping in and say ‘hey I did stuff!’ isn’t enough for them anymore. Also, try this on.” Crowley handed Aziraphale a light blue dress. 

“What?! Why?” Aziraphale stood staring at the dress that was placed in his hands.

“Your outfit is hard to draw. I told you I wanted to practice painting. If I try to draw what you’re wearing now we’ll be here for the next century. Just put it on.” If it was an excuse to see Aziraphale in a dress as well, Crowley certainly didn’t say as much.

"Fine but I get to add my touch to this painting as well." Aziraphale miracled the dress on sitting down on a stool in front of the easel Crowley was setting up. As soon as he was comfortable he let his wings unfurl from behind him with a sigh. 

Crowley glanced up from where he was placing his paints. "Jeez, angel when was the last time you cleaned your wings?” 

Aziraphale bent one wing in front of him and ran his fingers through the feathers trying to straighten a few feathers out. “I suppose I just haven’t had the time. It really is a tedious chore you know.”

Crowley sighed picking up a brush. “I can help you after this.” Aziraphale happily wiggled to himself. “You just have to hold  _ still. _ ”

“Oh course my dear. I’ll be as still as a statue.”

Aziraphale was horrible at sitting still. He was trying terribly hard but it was just so hard to sit still. 

Crowley noticed this about twenty minutes in, when the angel’s wings started to twitch and he quietly patted his lap. They were just small movements so it truly wasn’t anything too problematic. 

By the time they were a couple of hours in, Aziraphale started to move around a lot more. He would shift in his seat and stretch out his limbs. Each time Crowley would his at him to hold still. 

This continued for about three more hours before Aziraphale finally spoke up. 

"How much longer will this take my dear?" He tilted his head to the side and stretched his wings out again causing loose feathers to flutter to the floor. 

Crowley sighed looking between the painting and the angel. "Go ahead a move angel. I think we should just call it a day." 

The angel quickly stood up brushing off a few stray feathers that clung to the dress. "It is quite nice. The dress that is. It's very soft."

"Hmm oh yeah. It's velvet. It's like they upgraded silk really. I like it." Crowley absentmindedly said focusing on putting the half-finished painting where I wouldn't be damaged. "You wanted help with your wings right Angel?" He turned his head looking towards Aziraphale who was still awkwardly standing in the middle of the room.

"If you wouldn't mind dear."

The Them and Adam hung around the bookshop for about an hour listening to Aziraphale ramble on and on about whatever came to mind, and to Crowley avoiding talking about his view on history altogether.

"I think we should head home. It's getting late." Adam announced loud enough for the others to hear. "Thank you again for the help." 

Of course, they all knew that nothing that was said in this shop would help them with their assignments. Aziraphale was to find about what he a Crowley had for lunch in the past, and Crowley was just too secretive altogether. 

"Oh, of course, dear boy do come by anytime," Aziraphale said cheerfully going to stand next to Crowley, who was waving as the children walked out of the shop. 


End file.
